FearTASTIC Vault O’FUN #144
See No Evil (2006)
Director(s): Gregory Dark
Writer(s): Dan Madigan
Starring: Glenn Jacobs, Luke Pegler, Rachael Taylor
CROSSOVER ALERT!
I was lucky/cool/FearTASTIC enough to be invited to the Pencil Neck Geeks podcast as a guest back in May 2025 (IG info at the bottom of this entry) by one of my comrades who also happens to be one of the hosts of the show to weigh in on the horror offering that was See No Evil and its ties with the WWE Universe. The Pencil Neck Geeks podcast is a unique show that discusses professional wrestling and its impact/influence with pop culture or the other way around and because See No Evil was the WWE dipping its feet in the horror genre, they asked yours truly to give my two cents on the flick and jibber jabber on how they (hilariously) tried to tie the flick in to a wrestling storyline which I will get into in this entry as well so gear up folks, like I said, this is both a FearTASTIC vault entry but also, in a way, a summary of the Pencil Neck Geek podcast so yeah, CROSS PROMOTION…ENGAGED!
Back in 2006, the WWE was going through a transition phase from their “Attitude Era” which completely dominated the professional wrestling world with its mix of violence, sex appeal and adult themes but around 2006, the brand was starting to veer towards a more mainstream audience and one venue seemed to get into the world of cinema so it was a bit surprising to me that the first movie that they decided to produce was a horror flick! I mean, perhaps this was a way to have a foot in the attitude era while still appealing to a broader audience but there you go, See No Evil was a go and starring Glenn Jacobs, known otherwise as the Big Red Machine, The Undertaker’s little bro, KANE!
The movie itself is easy enough to explain and I want to be very clear about this; there is nothing groundbreaking about this flick, as a matter of fact, this easily could have been someone typing “Fun Slasher Movie Plot” in some sort of AI generator and it would have spit out this thing, but you know what? Like I’ve said in many entries, it’s about the entertainment factor of the macabre folks and from what this flick lacks in story, character development, etc. it makes up for in macabre-filled fun! The flick focuses on a bunch of juvenile delinquents that are tasked to help cleanup an old hotel and wouldn’t you know it? The old place comes with its very own slasher, named Jacob Goodnight (yes, that’s his name). The look of the movie is very reminiscent of a lot of slasher movies from the 2000s, meaning everyone basically trying to follow the Texas Chainsaw remakes where everything has that ominous tan/brown visual, the camera constantly smash cuts to different scenes with loud screeching noises and where refrigeration seems to nonexistent since everything is always rotting. Of course, the teens are your typical archetypes filled with nerds, hotties and a-holes and it takes at least 20-25 minutes until the killings get going but most of them are pretty damn entertaining! You have a kill scene involving some wild dogs, one with sweet wrestling moves and some great shots of eyeballs that are NOT for the squeamish (that’s his thing apparently). One thing to note is that our man Jacob has a bell system rigged throughout the hotel which he uses to let’s say, “track” his potential victims and I’ll leave it at that (you can watch the flick and/or listen to the podcast) but it’s an unintentional hilarious concept of this flick that I can joke about for hours so for that idea alone, this flick gets a thumbs up!
Now, how do they tie this in WWE you ask? Horribly but hilariously. But more specifically, they had Kane essentially become schizophrenic to the point where he attacked his own friend/tag team partner and basically anyone around him who brought up MAY-19th…which happened to be the opening date of the movie (insert GROAN here) and the payoff was the voices lead to a doppelgänger of Kane revealing himself and beating down the “real” Kane. The two would go on to have a rivalry for the next couple of months with Kane even saying that he knows who this imposter is and how this person was even more crazy this his crazy ass but what was so lame about this story line is that it basically ran out of gas and ended is such apathetic fashion. After fake Kane whooped real Kane’s butt for months on end, the two faced off during an event and real Kane finally won and reclaimed his mask from fake Kane…but you never saw fake Kane’s face and real Kane sort of just pushed him out of the building and…that was that. Yup, that’s how that story line ended, for real, no hellfire, no speeches, no nothing! Real Kane just beat up the fake Kane, took off fake Kane’s mask and shoved him out of a building like some sort of solicitor selling Cutco knives. It was so anticlimactic that just like the movie itself, the storyline just came and went without anyone noticing.
There really is little to nothing original about this movie from a plot or character standpoint that you haven’t seen in movies like Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw, Halloween, etc. but as far as having some friends over with some beverages and snacks to sass the screen? GREAT times ahead and sometimes, that’s the point my friends.
Check out PENCIL NECK GEEKS podcast and specifically, check out the ep with yours truly on wherever you get your podcasting goodness (MAY-19-2025 Episode)!
IG: @pngpodcast
Life is FAR more interesting when we take interest in things that scare us.